Scientists predict global warming will end Utah’s ski industry

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OGDEN -- The greatest snow on earth could be in danger, according to an environmental advocate and writer who spoke to students at Weber State University Tuesday about the effects climate change will have on snow and the ski industry.

By the end of the century, some scientists predict Utah will no longer be a skiing destination, because global warming will prevent snow from falling and in turn will affect the ski industry.

"Even if we stopped everything right now the warming continues for half a century, maybe more," said Porter Fox, author of "DEEP: The Story of Skiing and the Future of Snow. "We are trying to get ahead of that ball and say the trends you are seeing are only going to get worse."

The author's research shows by the end of the century Park City will like have a zero snowpack all winter long, if things continue the way they are now.

Ski Utah is more optimistic and says many of the resorts are doing their part.

"There's amazing ride share programs that our resorts do in the winter for employees," said Director of Communications Susie English. "Great park and rides at the base of Little and Big Cottonwood with buses that run around the clock. Yeah our resorts definitely are trying to do their part and figure something out."

Fox figures a bad snow year can mean a loss of $150 million and thousands of jobs in Utah, but if unchecked he says it could mean the end of skiing as we know it.

17 comments

Me

Aaron

Please Ashton Goodell many of the IPCC scientist do not agree with the notion of man made global warming. The general public are starting to realize this. When will the media do some due diligence on the topic.

Ivan

First of all climate change has been going on since the earth got a atmosphere. When the climate gets warmer it means more moisture in the air so that will mean more storms and more snow during the winter if we are in the path of the new weather pattern.

Well at least these “scientists” have wised up, and stopped making 20 year predictions. Much safer to make predictions about a time far enough in the future, that when they don’t actually happen, you are long dead, and no one can make fun of you for your ignorance.

Incidentally, this scientist does not agree with this article. Neither do a growing number of scientists.

When you see the reality that we have had no warming in 18 years, you have to look at the facts as they exist, and no matter how inconvenient the truth may be towards your agenda, ultimately you can only hold our your own preconceived bias for so long. Eventually you have to admit there is no human caused global warming.

I won’t fill my comment with boring facts. I will simply state that anyone reading this comment is smart enough to do their own research, and draw their own conclusions. Study topics such as the previous ice age, the average temperature on Earth over the past 250 million years, the relationship between CO2 and the greenhouse effect, the role the ocean places in storing CO2, etc.

The science does not bode well for those who support Global Warming. It just doesn’t.
As a scientist, you have to ride the facts wherever they take you. And I am sorry for clowns like the one in this news story, but that is where the facts ultimately bring you.

Not to mention… that there has been no warming throughout the entire lifetime of this year’s graduating high school students.

F..N, You’ve got a point that only scientific analysis has a reasonable chance to tell us correctly where all this is headed. And those scientists who have spent their lives researching this do have a pretty good handle on what is happening and where this is likely to end up, except then come lay folk like you who voice “their scientific views”. That just cracks me up. Really funny is that you swim along with the rightwing stream stating that the last 18 years tell all.
Looking at the measured global AIR temperature averages over time (since the mid 1800’s) it should have been obvious that another 30+ year flatliner occurred mid 1900’s. No one knows why it happened, though there are speculations. The current flatliner has almost the same question mark attached to it, except that we now know a lot more, and have broader abilities to measure what is and what is not. The data are showing a tremendous amount of heat has gone into the oceans, which is why the sea levels are rising steadily. This steady rise is going on unhindered by the so-called hiatus. “so-called” because air temperature measurements miss to observe the largest thermal basin on Earth: The oceans.
In short, you may want to hang your hat off an incomplete story line, or join the reality that for most of the history of global temperature measurements we have been ignoring the greatest thermal pool of all. Measurements on that pool show the world the ugly picture of human hubris totally disregarding humanity’s only home.

Will less snow fall? Perhaps not, But, because of climate change or warming, snow cover will disappear at an earlier date, though there may be lots of it initially.
This Feb. in California, snow cover was only 14% of normal. Our fourth year of drought, this is alarming because CA gets 75% of its water from snow cover.

Without sharp emissions cuts, this will be the new normal in several decades, according to the NRDC.

Jeff

So, just because California is going through a drought means that global warming is real? By that reasoning, you are implying that there have never been droughts in California before. And now it’s several decades. Al Gore claimed the arctic ice cap would be completely gone by now. Just a few decades ago, they were concerned that an ice age was imminent.
Rather than all the hysteria over something that may or may not happen in a few decades, or years, or maybe centuries, if people want to make changes to have a cleaner planet, they should sit down and talk rationally. The boy who cried wolf doesn’t work as a method for long.

AnotherBob

If you’re looking for sympathy for the folks on the left coast that voted the likes of Gov. Gray Davis into office forget it. You fools currently have a state debt of $778 billion. Don’t you have to pay interest on it?

KTM

There may or may not be a lack of Utah snow 100 years from now. Either way, all the new taxes on CO2 (plane flights, etc) will make it unaffordable for anyone to travel to and from Utah to ski or do anything else fun.

They don’t want to wait around for the climate to devastate Utah tourism, they want to put a stop to it immediately if not sooner.

richard

This is starting to really get tedious now. Everything is predicted to happen in the future but careful worded with , “coulds” “mights”, “maybes” “possibly”. Weasel words that don’t mean anything will happen.

Whey don’t they just be done with this and say ” everything bad you could possibly imagine might happen in the future”